Albany Patroons lose Game 1, 107-92… this ain’t good…

Everything was going fine. Albany was up 20-4 in the first few minutes of Game 1 of the NAPB Basketball championship series against the Yakima Sun Kings. They couldn’t miss. 9 for 9 from the floor and 2 for 2 from the line. It’s like someone inserted the Konami Code in the team and they couldn’t be stopped.

And then the Sun Kings did what the Sun Kings seem to do all the time.

They came back.

They tied the game at 37-37.

They took a 50-46 lead into the half.

And then they just pulled away.

And they took Game 1 of the best of three series.

God damn it.

The Patroons’ only chance now to claim the NAPB title is to win Games 2 and 3 of the series. Nothing else will achieve this goal.

Trust me, I’m not enamored with this result. After starting the game on fire, Albany couldn’t close it out. Costly turnovers. Bad fouls. Incomplete second and third chances at the hoop.

We can’t let that happen this weekend.

I’m sure Coach Derrick Rowland’s going to have words with the entire team at practice. There’s no other explanation.

I mean, on the positive, Xavier Moon led all scorers with 31 points. And DeAndre Thomas had a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds.

but that’s not enough.

I know the old mantra is you can only play one game at a time. And that one game is this Saturday evening.

Let’s get this done.

We have to.

I’ve waited nearly a decade for the Patroons to play for the title.

I don’t want to waite another decade for them to return to the finals.